Benitez wants more funds

English FA Premiership/ Liverpool 0 Charlton Athletic 0: Rafael Benitez is to test the Liverpool board's ability to match his own ambitions by seeking assurances that he will be granted significant transfer funds this summer to build a team capable of challenging Chelsea's dominance of the Premiership.

A pivotal week in the European champions' season, with an awkward deficit to be overhauled against Benfica on Wednesday if they are to maintain the defence of their trophy, began badly when Saturday's unsatisfactory display against Charlton added to the disquiet engulfing Anfield.

The Spaniard will seek up to £40 million at the end of the campaign to strengthen his side, but the club's inability as yet to attract new investment suggests manager and board are potentially on a collision course, with Real Madrid and Internazionale waiting in the wings to try to tempt Benitez away.

Though he remains publicly committed to the club and, even privately, still keen to remain on Merseyside, it is clear that frustration is welling. He is apparently desperate to switch the emphasis of his transfer policy away from buying youth and potential to purchasing established world-class quality. The Liverpool board would point to the £50 million spent since he took up the reins two years ago, albeit that a proportion of it has been recouped with sales, as evidence that they have backed their coach.

Benitez's agent, Manuel Garcia Quilon, will travel to England this week to attend Wednesday's Champions League tie with Benfica and is expected to have talks with the Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry to discuss his client's concerns.

Quite how the board can offer sufficient reassurance remains to be seen. It is just under two years since they appointed Hawkpoint Partners Ltd as their financial advisers with the aim of attracting investment into the club and they have yet to secure that elusive injection.

"The need for additional finance is recognised and progress is being made," the director Keith Clayton, standing in for indisposed chairman David Moores, told shareholders at the club's annual meeting this month.

Yet coupled with the need to generate transfer monies is the need to unearth funding for a new stadium now expected to cost £160 million, with confirmation that both Real and Internazionale have contacted Benitez's camp in the past week to investigate his availability heightening Liverpool's alarm.

The politics are disconcerting when the task ahead against Benfica already appears more daunting than reality suggests it should. The Portuguese were distinctly ordinary at the Estadio da Luz a fortnight ago but still chiselled out a lead, and Liverpool's persistent attacking deficiencies were exposed again against a resilient if overly cautious Charlton. A draw may have edged the home side into second place but it is now 10 games since a forward scored for them in the Premiership none has managed it this year - and three of the strikers used here were Benitez signings.

The fourth, Djibril Cisse, was denied twice by the excellent Thomas Myhre before the interval but has spent his season largely marooned on the right flank. His body language, like that of Steven Gerrard and even Benitez at times, betrayed his exasperation and it was typical that, when he did drift to the centre, he was the forward caught offside when Robbie Fowler pummelled the ball beyond Myhre in stoppage-time at the end.

The best Peter Crouch could muster was a tame header into the Norwegian's hands and, though Charlton were occasionally stretched, they spent long periods content to allow the hosts possession in areas where they simply could not be hurt.

Two goals at least will be needed against Benfica if Liverpool are to progress to the quarter-finals, and they have not managed that many at Anfield since St Stephen's Day.

"We played well, creating a lot of chances, and their goalkeeper was the man of the match," offered Benitez, who expects Sami Hyypia, withdrawn at the interval after tweaking a hamstring, to be fit for the European tie. "I think we will score against Benfica. I think we will score two or maybe three because we are creating a lot of chances."